An original musical exploring love, tradition and one very delicate decision …
Beth and Matthew, a Jewish couple, have just given birth to a baby boy after their midwife’s tea leaves promised a girl. Now both of their families are insisting they plan a Bris, a traditional circumcision ceremony and lavish after-party.
Beth is reluctant to alter her perfect newborn, but her father has the Rabbi on speed dial, and her mother-in-law always gets what she wants. Can Beth find a way to honor her family’s traditions and still remain true to her heart? Will Matthew be able to cut the umbilical cord with his mother? And can Beth and Matthew’s marriage survive the emotional turmoil that ensues over their newborn's foreskin?
Listen to the Music
With a contemporary score and irreverent humor, Snipped! invites audiences of all backgrounds to laugh, squirm, cry, and reflect on how we navigate cultural expectations in the modern age.
The writing team began developing the musical during the pandemic. As the material evolved, two informal table reads were held in Los Angeles, followed by a 29-hour Equity reading. A second 29-hour Equity reading is planned for New York in fall 2026.
Why This Show? Uncut Hilarity
UNIVERSAL
Navigating family dynamics and challenges common to all cultures
TIMELY
Tackling a sensitive, often taboo, subject with fearless wit and humor
FUN
Guaranteed belly laughs and heartwarming moments that will sneak up on you
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Shelly Peiken
MUSIC & LYRICS
GRAMMY nominated songwriter Shelly Peiken has been a prolific force in the music business for more than 3decades. She is best known forChristina Aguilera’s No. 1 hit, “What a Girl Wants” and Meredith Brooks’ smash, “Bitch.”
Her amusing and poignant memoir Confessions of a Serial Songwriter— a humorous pop culture chronicle about her journey from young girl falling under the spell of magical songs to a working professional writing hits of her own— earned Shelly a second GRAMMY nomination for Best Spoken Word Album.
Shelly was heartened by her colleague Lucy’s story of whether or not to circumcise her son and after a long career penning pop-songs for hundreds of recording artists (The Pretenders, Britney Spears, Keith Urban), and composing for TV and film (the Disney Descendants’ favorite “Rotten To The Core”, she couldn’t resist jumping in and collaborating on the songs that would accompany this emotional journey.
Ms. Peiken was voted Best Singer Songwriter by Hollywood Music and Media in 2021, honored at the 2023 She Rocks Awards and featured at London’s Other Songs Concert— a celebration of songwriting.
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Adam Gorgoni
MUSIC & LYRICS
Composer Adam Gorgoni's film scoring credits include Sundance favorite Starting Out In The Evening, Deauville Grand Prize winner The Dead Girl, cult comedy classic Waiting, the HBO documentary I Knew It Was You, among dozens of others. Recent television work includes USA Network's Necessary Roughness, the CW series Aliens In America, Lorne Michaels’ ABC comedy Sons and Daughters, as well as shows for NBC, Disney, Discovery Channel, Bravo, and National Geographic. Gorgoni has extensive experience in music for advertising, with clients including Toyota, AT&T, IBM, Mastercard and many others.
Recently, he has begun to indulge a longtime love of musical theater, proudly serving as a co-producer of the groundbreaking musical Head Over Heels, which featured the music of the Go-Gos, and debuted on Broadway in 2018. Gorgoni is a founding member and Advocacy co-chair of Songwriters of North America (SONA), an organization which fights for fair compensation for music writers in the digital age.
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Lucy Levinsohn Berman
BOOK, MUSIC & LYRICS
Lucy Levinsohn Berman is a Jewish American singer, songwriter, community builder, and activist. As the front-woman of the Los Angeles based Alternative Rock band EVOLOVE, her music has been featured in television and film. Her most recent project The DreiDells is a big departure. This Jewish Comedy Duo created with her sister was designed to spread a positive global message about Judaism. Activism has always taken center stage, currently Lucy serves as the Special Event's lead for BRUCHIM, a Jewish advocacy and inclusion group, as well as being an active member fighting for fair royalty rates with Songwriter's of North America (SONA), where she is the co-chair of Events. In 2022 she was honored with the title "28th Congressional District Woman of the Year" by Congressman Adam Schiff for her work within her community of Sunland-Tujunga, founding Hanukkah in the Foothills which earned a Certificate of recognition by Senator Anthony Portantino.
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Kimberly Arnold
BOOK
Kimberly Arnold does all the things. When she's not writing jokes about circumcision, she is the co-host of the hit true crime podcast, A Date with Dateline. The podcast had over 5 1/2 million downloads last year alone, but the part Kimberly loves the most is that she can work in her pajamas. When she's not recording, she co-produces an annual new works play festival for the Garry Marshall Theatre, and she also has a curse word cross stitch Etsy shop called Stitches Be Krazy. In 2017 she ended a 12 year stint as a Hollywood assistant for legendary director and nicest guy in show business Garry Marshall. He was a mentor to Kimberly, encouraging her to get over her paralyzing fear of writing by throwing napkins at her during dinner and shouting, "You're funny, start writing!"
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Jill Piwowar
BOOK
Jill Piwowar is an assistant editor living in Los Angeles, CA who has found her voice for storytelling through the editing bay. Working under Hollywood’s comedy greats such as Garry Marshall, Ivan Reitman, and Jeff Tremaine inspired her desire to write and create original content. Jill is very excited for her latest endeavor Snipped: A Non-Cutting Edge Musical, joining forces with her good friends and colleagues to tell the tale of a mostly true story about one mother’s journey to fight social and religious norms to save her son's foreskin from enduring a circumcision.
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Richard Israel
DIRECTOR
Richard Israel is a New York-based theatre director specializing in the development of new musicals, and is the recipient of the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Career Achievement. Current development projects include King of Pangea (off- West End World Premiere Summer 2025), Re:Connecting (with Zina Goldrich and David Javerbaum), A Very Brady Musical (with Lloyd Schwartz, the original Brady Bunch series producer), Amelia— A Musical Tale of Bravery and Mystery (written and produced by Tegan Summer) and The Civility of Albert Cashier. Richard was the Theatrical Coordinator for the Emmy award-winning series, Big Little Lies and was the director of the multiple award-winning musical, short film Into Light. He has directed in London at the King's Head Theatre, off-Broadway at Theatre Row, AMT and the NY Theatre Festival, and regionally at The O'Neill Theatre Center, The Ogunquit Playhouse, The Laguna Playhouse, Z-Space San Francisco and McCoy/Rigby Entertainment. Notable west coast productions include Violet (LA Stage Alliance Ovation Award for Direction of a Musical), Floyd Collins (Ovation Award for Direction and Outstanding Musical), 110 in the Shade (Ovation Award for Outstanding Musical), and the world premiere of Anita Bryant Died For Your Sins. He is the Program Director of the BFA Acting for Theatre, Film & Television at Long Island University Brooklyn.